The rising sun of 27th January 2017 saw Beijing Olympic gold medalist shooter Abhinav Bindra being appointed as the chairman of the reconstituted Target Olympic Podium(TOP) Committee. This reconstituted committee also contains yesteryear PT Usha and the great Badminton player Prakash Padukone.The two other sportspersons in the ten-member panel are shooter Anjali Bhagwat and woman weightlifter Karnam Malleswari, the 2000 Sydney Olympic bronze winners.
The remaining five members are the All India Tennis Association (AITA) president Anil Khana,Boxing administrator PK Muralidharan Raja,Railways Sports Promotion Board Secretary Rekha Yadav, SS Roy, ED(teams) SAI and joint secretary (sports) Under Dhamija.
Abhinav Bindra was already in the previous committee but due to his preparation for the Rio Olympics 2016,he gave up his membership.
On 28th January 2017, at the Tata Steel Kolkata Literary Meet, he discussed about the need to develop collective expertise at the grassroot levels, stating the “missing link” that needs to be revised for prosperity of sports in India. “We have a lot of ‘so called’ coaches now who have a bit of knowledge. But obviously I think for a collection of knowledge there is a long way to go for us. That is a missing link in Indian sport.”
Bindra also said though things had advanced in the last few years, more needed to be worked upon. The main objective of this reconstituted committee is to identity and support potential medal prospect for 2020 and 2024 Olympics Games under the TOP scheme. The scheme was formulated keeping the Olympic Games of 2016-2020.
Committee will decide on its own procedures and will be competent to invite subject experts as and when required. The Initial tenure of the committee will be one year from the date of notification,” stated by a ministry press release.
Under the scheme, the selected athlete will be provided financial assistance for their customized training.They will be given world-class facilities and all other necessary support required. All these r done to improve the medal tally for the country and rise the position of the country in the world of sports.
(With inputs from PTI)